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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions.
This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization.
Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

The Carnivore Way: A Transboundary Conservation Vision

Carnivore Way, Alaska. Image by Alisa Acosta, used with permission. Click to enlarge.

In the last three decades, ecology has advanced in huge leaps, with important conservation lessons along the way. In the 1980s we created the concept of biodiversity to define the variety of living organisms and the habitats they inhabit, and then created the science of conservation biology to study biodiversity. In the process we learned that not all species are equal, and some have stronger impacts on food webs than others.

Zoologist Robert Paine termed such species keystones and found many of them to be carnivores, such as sea otters, sea stars, andwolves. He pointed out that in ecosystems lacking keystone predators, biodiversity plummets as unchecked herbivores consume plants to death, thereby eliminating habitat for many other species. Ecologist Daniel Simberloff demonstrated that creating sufficiently large habitat patches for species and corridors for them to move between these patches is essential to prevent species extinction. In the 1990s, we tested these new ecological concepts via bold natural experiments such as theYellowstone National Park wolf reintroduction. We then collected data, had healthy, vigorous debates about our findings, and by the 2000s had crafted a solid framework to conserve large carnivores.

In North America, large carnivore conservation has followed the trajectory of our ecological enlightenment. From the 1700s through the early 1900s, European settlers killed most large carnivores (wolves, grizzly bears, cougars, jaguars, lynx, wolverines) for their valuable pelts, or because meat-eating creatures with sharp teeth and claws presented a perceived threat to agriculture and other human enterprises. However, beginning in the mid-1920s, Aldo Leopold and other natural resources managers recognized that carnivores are essential components of healthy ecosystems and advocated conserving them. While it took a few decades for this radical notion to take hold, by the 1970s we had passed environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, which enabled large carnivore recovery in the western United States and beyond. We also learned that because large carnivores cover extensive distances in their daily movements, their conservation must transcend international borders.

Understanding large carnivore needs in our rapidly changing world requires a long view. Twelve thousand years ago, two ice sheets covered much of North America. The Laurentian Ice Sheet ranged over most of Canada, and the Cordilleran Ice Sheet blanketed the Pacific Coast. As they receded, a path opened between them. This corridor gradually widened, creating a passage for plants and animals. In time, lush forests arose, and large mammals began to inhabit and move through the steep slopes and fertile valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Today, animals continue to use this ancient migration and dispersal pathway. Indeed, I like to think of it as a “carnivore way,” because of the carnivores who have worn deep trails in this pathway over the millennia.

According to conservation biologist David Theobald, corridors function like lifelines, enabling animals to flow from one core area to another. Barriers to this basic need to move, such as human development, can provide formidable threats to long-term survival of many species. For the large carnivores, it’s not just about losing the freedom to move, it’s about losing a natural process. They and other species use dispersal as a key survival mechanism, to maintain genetic diversity. Species also use dispersal to adapt to climate change. Ten thousand years ago, when North America consisted of vast, unbroken tracts of land, these dispersals were probably fairly straightforward. But today, given our fragmented continent, such movements literally amount to acts of faith. Faith that by acting on instinct, these animals will find what they need to persist as individuals, and beyond that, as species: a safe home, suitable habitat, and a mate.

To learn more about the challenges carnivores face today, I traveled the Carnivore Way, talked to dozens of ecologists, ranchers, and conservationists, and spent time immersed in the landscapes these animals inhabit. In the weeks to come, I will be posting some of these species’ stories and the astonishing lessons I learned on my journey.

Dr. Cristina Eisenberg is a conservation biologist at Oregon State University, a Smithsonian Research Associate, and a Boone and Crockett Fellow who studies how wolves affect forest ecosystems throughout the West. She is the author of The Wolf's Tooth and the new book The Carnivore Way.

Two Massachusetts Eastern Coyotes at their den site

Eastern Wolf in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

Aldo Leopold--3 quotes from his SAN COUNTY ALMANAC

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

Aldo Leopold

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Aldo Leopold

''To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering."

Wildlife Rendezvous

Like so many conscientious hunters and anglers come to realize, good habitat with our full suite of predators and prey make for healthy and productive living............Teddy Roosevelt depicted at a "WILDLIFE RENDEZVOUS"

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This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time…I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. This blog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of my various thoughts and opinions, and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today. All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. Rick Meril and WWW.COYOTES-WOLVES-COUGARS.COM make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.